In heretofore known web lap or butt splicing apparatuses of the type disclosed in the aforementioned patents, a running web accumulator or festoon, as exemplified in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,886,031 to Taitel and Ryan, U.S. Pat. No. 4,374,576, is required to supply running web to the using machine, e.g. hammermill, during the period that the web is stopped for purposes of effecting the splice connection between the respective end portions of a depleting roll and new roll of web material. It has been found that the use of a festoon is not feasible for webs composed of filler absorbent material such as is used in diapers and sanitary napkins, known in the art as "pulp", before being fed into a hammermill where its density is decreased by a process known as "fluffing". A festoon is not practical because the rollers of the festoon around which the web of pulp has to be woven would be of exceptionally large size, as for example one foot in diameter, festoons requiring such large diameter rollers become impractically large in overall size. Also impractically large festoons would be required to accomodate webs of relatively stiff material as for example, cardboard and heavy paper of about 0.01 inches which must be woven around large diameter rollers to avoid fracture or tearing of the web. This problem of providing a using machine, such as a hammermill, with a supply of web of pulp material or relatively stiff material during splicing is solved by the web splicing machine of this invention.
Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide a web splicing apparatus which is capable of providing a continuous running web to a using machine during splicing, but does not require a festoon. Another object of the present invention is to provide a splicing machine capable of handling a web of pulp or relatively stiff material.